Unable to run oobe or msoobe on clean Win 11 install

I'm trying to do a clean Win 11 install, completely clean of all the accumulated Windows 10 cruft from my old Wkindows. So the first thing I did with the Win 11 USB installer was wipe the drive clean. Then I started to do a clean install, and got as far as the screen "Let's connect you to a network." But I don't want to connect to a network. I have fresh, latest version drivers that i want to install BEFORE connecting to the web. When I was doing Win 10 installs, this was not an issue.

If it matters, I'm trying to install Win 11 on a system that already has a digital license for Win 10 Pro 64.

This tutorial Custom Install Windows 11 Tutorial says to use oobe \bypassnro or msoobe \bypassnro.

If you don't have an Internet connection and none of the above worked for you, then press the Shift + F10 keys to open a command prompt. Copy and paste the OOBE\BYPASSNRO command into the command prompt, and press Enter. This will restart the computer, and take you back to step 15. You should then be able to click/tap on I don't have internet when you get back to this step, and go to step 23D to set up a local account. (see bottom screenshot)

If the OOBE\BYPASSNRO command doesn't work for you, then copy and paste the MSOOBE\BYPASSNRO command into the command prompt, and press Enter. This will restart the computer, and take you back to step 15. You should then be able to click/tap on I don't have internet when you get back to this step, and go to step 23D to set up a local account. (see bottom screenshot)

However, neither command was recognized. Even plain oobe or msoobe was not recognized. What do I do now?

I'm posting this thread from a system still running Win 10 Pro.

So run a Dir command to check what the subfolders are called.
You should be in Windows\System32 and one of its subfolders contains the file bypassnro.cmd
OOBE used to be the only known subfolder containing bypassnro.
Then an HP user reported the subfolder MSOOBE contained bypassnro.
Perhaps there are more variations - just find the subfolder containing bypassnro.

And do please report back with what you find. I'm getting a new laptop next week and hope to benefit from your investigation when I'm in the OOBE stage.

Best of luck,
Denis

x509 said:

I'm trying to do a clean Win 11 install, completely clean of all the accumulated Windows 10 cruft from my old Wkindows. So the first thing I did with the Win 11 USB installer was wipe the drive clean. Then I started to do a clean install, and got as far as the screen "Let's connect you to a network." But I don't want to connect to a network. I have fresh, latest version drivers that i want to install BEFORE connecting to the web. When I was doing Win 10 installs, this was not an issue.

Click to expand...

Use Audit Mode.

Probably you should have used Rufus to write the USB that bypasses all those quirks !

cineman195 said:

Probably you should have used Rufus to write the USB that bypasses all those quirks !

Click to expand...

How so? I had no problem with booting from the USB for installing Win 11. And for Win 10 never again problems either.

Try3 said:

So run a Dir command to check what the subfolders are called.
You should be in Windows\System32 and one of its subfolders contains the file bypassnro.cmd
OOBE used to be the only known subfolder containing bypassnro.
Then an HP user reported the subfolder MSOOBE contained bypassnro.
Perhaps there are more variations - just find the subfolder containing bypassnro.

And do please report back with what you find. I'm getting a new laptop next week and hope to benefit from your investigation when I'm in the OOBE stage.

Best of luck,
Denis

Click to expand...

Oddly, I did a clean install on a Dell XPS laptop with the Tuesday's update and was prepared to use oobe/bypassnro, but upon arriving at the screen to Shift + F10, the option was available to opt that I did not have internet.

Try3 said:

So run a Dir command to check what the subfolders are called.
You should be in Windows\System32 and one of its subfolders contains the file bypassnro.cmd
OOBE used to be the only known subfolder containing bypassnro.
Then an HP user reported the subfolder MSOOBE contained bypassnro.
Perhaps there are more variations - just find the subfolder containing bypassnro.

And do please report back with what you find. I'm getting a new laptop next week and hope to benefit from your investigation when I'm in the OOBE stage.

Best of luck,
Denis

Click to expand...

@Try3

the good news and the bad news. The Good News is that there is an oobe subdirectory in Windows\System32, with an msoobe executable.

The Bad News is that running this program with the \bypassnro option did not accomplish anything useful. To be clear, I wasn't connected to the web. what I got was a spinning circle for over 10 minutes. So I rebooted. Windows wanted me to log into account default0, but that login required a password. What password?

So I had to reinstall yet once more and try @NavyLCDR suggestion for Audit Mode, which did work.

NavyLCDR said:

Use Audit Mode.

Boot Windows to Audit Mode or OOBE

Boot Windows to Audit Mode or OOBE

learn.microsoft.com

Click to expand...

Yeah, that worked.

x509 said:

Yeah, that worked.

Click to expand...

Of course audit mode worked. But what you were initially looking for is the BypassNRO.cmd located in the C:\Windows\System32\oobe folder:

x509 said:

How so? I had no problem with booting from the USB for installing Win 11. And for Win 10 never again problems either.

Click to expand...

x509 said:

But I hafta wonder. Why is Microsoft making a Win 11 clean install such a pain in the tuchus? Win 10 clean install was very straightforward.

Click to expand...

Huh ???

Post 1 : Win 11 good, Win 10 bad

Post 2 : Win 10 good, Win 11 bad

(with apologies to George Orwell)

x509 said:

The Bad News is that running this program with the \bypassnro option did not accomplish anything useful.

Click to expand...

What did you type in as your command?
oobe\bypassnro - is correct
oobe \bypassnro- is wrong


All the best,
Denis

kgarrett67 said:

upon arriving at the screen to Shift + F10, the option was available to opt that I did not have internet.

Click to expand...

Did you take a screenshot or photo by any chance?
I have not heard of the option you mentioned.

Denis

Probably could add this comment to any number of threads on this topic, but this was the first one that came up in a search ...

Tks for this solution. Worked a treat and solved my problem.

As another contributor suggested, I always use a Rufus USB set to bypass/ignore every obstacle that MS tries to put in place for a clean install, whether on a "compliant" device or a "non-compliant" device.

This time, I decided to try that good ole fashion original method using a boot USB newly created with Windows Media Creation Tool ({sniff} {sniff} pure nostalgia, haven't done this for ages {sniff} {sniff}), and of course I struck the you-must-have-an-MS account brickwall. I reverted to the former practice of Shift+F10 > cmd window > taskmgr > enter > look for the network etc entry in running processes > end task. Damn and blast if MS hasn't stopped that. Now a continuous loop of : you've lost the internet > try again > shift+f10 etc > you've lost the internet > try again > loop-de-loop adinfinitum

Then I remembered seeing something about oobe, searched, found this thread, bingo! Gotcha ... User 1 MS 0. Note there is a post above that refers to the command as oobe{space}\nopassnro. That didn't work but the same command without the space nailed it!!
(EDIT : Oops, just read @Try3 post above. Sorry for duplication)

x509 said:

The Good News is that there is an oobe subdirectory in Windows\System32, with an msoobe executable.

The Bad News is that running this program with the \bypassnro option did not accomplish anything useful.

Click to expand...

You do not run msoobe.exe, you run a .cmd script in the OOBE folder called BypassNRO.cmd.